William R. Butler, vice president emeritus at the University of Miami, has been awarded with the Mortar Board National College Senior Honor Society’s Distinguished Lifetime Membership Award.
This award is given to notable Mortar Board alumni, who exemplify the honor society’s founding principles of scholarship, leadership and service.
Butler has been an administrator and educator at the University of Miami for more than 50 years.
His contributions to the university include establishing the Hecht and Stanford residential colleges and opening the Wellness Center.
He also founded the Butler Center for Service and Leadership, which provides service and leadership opportunities to student volunteers at the university.
In 1990, he worked with the City of Coral Gables to name a street after Mary A. Brunson, founder of UM’s Mortar Board chapter.
In that same year, he was initiated as an honorary member of the university’s Mortar Board chapter.
Since his retirement in 1997, Butler has written two books about the globalization of the university and student initiatives.
“I was thrilled to hear that Butler has received the Mortar Board Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Pat Whitely, vice president for student affairs. “His cutting-edge work in student affairs at UM and his leadership in higher education was incredibly impactful and he is so deserving of this special recognition.”